Depending on where you live, it's the start of winter this week. So for this challenge you are asked to create an icy or snow-covered scene. You may include characters and/or creatures too if you so wish.

Check out this short documentary about pixel art by animator Simon Cottee; in his own words it explores "the merits and impact of pixel art, animation and chiptune music". It contains a few interviews as well as showcasing snippets of several pixel art games and videos.

Pick two words that start with consecutive letters of the English alphabet (D&E, K&J, Z&A etc...) and use those words to form the title of your challenge piece. Your image should correspond to the title; so for example, you could pick "B" & "C" as your consecutive letters and then create a "Big Crocodile" or "T" & "S" and draw "The Sun". Keep in mind that we're talking about real English words here.

Make sure to set the title of your piece to your two chosen words.

Optional Bonus Challenge: Can you do it without picking words that start with the most common starting letters - A, B, F, H, I, M, O, S, T, W?

Onward Kashiyama Co., an apparel maker, recreated last Tuesday one of Vincent van Gogh's self-portraits, using 2070 of the conpany's polo shirts. It comes in 24 colors, including van Gogh's favorite bluish hue. 20 staffers worked about three and a half hours long to arrange the portrait at the Marunouchi Building in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, and was removed Sunday. All this in honor of the new range of polo shirts with the colors of van Gogh's painting. Anyway, it recalls Pixelart, but also its derivatives like Rubiks-cube Art, or Post-it Art. Images can be found here:

Mistress-Jaeden (PJ gallery) has recently posted a message stating she will step down from being Pixel Art Gallery Moderator at deviantArt, as a result there is a new position available. If you are at all interested in representing pixel art over at dA, then why not have a look over here for further information on how to apply.

So our massive PJ v3 approach was kind of a bust so we've decided to just go ahead and roll out updates incrementally. We've got quite a few nice improvements coming in the next couple of weeks and I'd like to pre-thank a few of the major design contributors ahead of time...

pixelblink - for the PJ v3 designs that will have elements trickling in.

One of the most influential men in fantasy art, Frank Frazetta, has recently passed away, due to a stroke. He defined heroes such as Conan the Barbarian and John Carter of Mars and set an example for others such as Jeffrey Jones and Boris Vallejo. He was 82 years old.

I think it's safe to assume Pixel Joint loves pixels and old-school games; Lowrez.de has some awesome shirts that pertain to just that! And right now, there's a promotional offer for the month of May for free shipping to the US and Canada.

Hero Core is a superb 2D shooter by Daniel Remar (best known for making Iji). You control Flip Hero in his quest to destroy the machine warlord Cruiser Tetron once and for all. While it is possible to fight Tetron very early in the game, you can also choose to explore the game world (in a manner reminiscent of the Metroid games) to upgrade your weapons and defences. The game features simple but effective 1-bit graphics, a cool retro soundtrack and some well-designed game mechanics and bosses. Expect a lot of intense bullet dodging and button mashing (an autofire option is available, however).